Last year in December, we came across a report where a Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO) run hotel had come forward with a petition against two Punjab-based businessmen who had failed to pay hotel bills worth Rs 22 lakh. Guests named Ashwani Kumar Chopra and Ramnik Bansal stayed at Hotel Shivalikview run by CITCO and failed to pay the bills. They left the cars at the hotel premises as a guarantee and never returned to settle the amount. To make up for the losses, Hotel Shivalik has now decided to auction off both the luxury cars that were confiscated by the hotel authorities.
Both businessmen knew each other and were staying in two different suites for several months in 2018. Both the guests had individual cars. One of them was a Chevrolet Cruze and the other was an Audi Q3 luxury SUV. The hotel authorities have now decided to auction these cars. Both guests have to pay Rs 11 lakh each as the bill. CITCO has set the base price for the Audi Q3 SUV as Rs 10 lakh and the Chevrolet Cruze which is not available in the market anymore was originally a Rs 15 lakh sedan. The base price for this sedan in the auction is Rs 1.5 lakh. The auction will be held on February 14.
The chronology of incidents that lead to the auction of these cars is something like this. In May of 2018, two businessman Ashwani Kumar Chopra and Ramnik Bansal checked in CITCO owned Hotel Shivalikview. The guests opted for different suites but they didn’t pay the bills in fact they kept enjoying the food, drinks and laundry services provided by the hotel. When the hotel demanded them to clear the dues Ramnik Bansal issued three cheques of Rs. 6 lakhs each which were dishonoured by the bank. Looking at the behaviour of the guests, hotel authorities called police for further investigation on 12 October 2018.
After police came for the investigation, Bansal tried to flee the hotel without making the payment. Hotel security closed the gates and blocked him. It was then Bansal handed over the keys to his Audi Q3 SUV to the hotel authorities and asked them to keep it as a guarantee. Ashwani Kumar Chopra also gave the keys to his Chevrolet Cruze to the hotel authorities and promised to clear the dues. The incident happened back in 2018 and even after so many year, both of them have not cleared the dues.
After the incident, a two-member committee was formed to look into the lapse on the part of the hotel officials. The report by CITCO officials Rajneesh Diwan and Maninder Singh pointed serious lapse by six officials and ordered a 50 percent salary cut from front office manager. Along with the front office manager, Guest relations executive and Relations executive and three receptionists were asked to pay 25 percent. The hotel authorities tried to settle the matter and clear all the dues by meeting the guests face-to-face however they never got a positive response or payment from them. This was the reason why CITCO had gone to court seeking help and demanded that both cars should be auctioned soon.
Keyword: Hotel to auction Audi Q3 luxury SUV and Chevrolet Cruze sedan of 2 businessmen who failed to pay Rs 22 lakh bill